Rovers

Here’s an interesting idea from John Graham-Cumming suggesting that “Rovers” like Curiosity could be useful in other environments. Specifically, the Earth is a gigantic place and most of it is hard for humans to access. Why don’t we have Earth Rovers that can perform simple tasks in those places?

I can see why having surveillance equipment in remote locations might make people nervous, because people generally don’t like being watched. This makes sense, but it completely ignores all of the other cases where “roving” can be helpful. Security is only one thing that computers do well, and we can learn a great deal by not judging what we see until we have a better picture. Sometimes waiting for an answer is the best thing to do.